Movie review: Rosamund Pike goes to ‘War’

Dana Barbuto More Content Now

Thursday

Nov 8, 2018 at 12:04 PMNov 8, 2018 at 12:04 PM

Documentarian Matthew Heineman’s first narrative feature, “A Private War,” tells the story of slain newswoman Marie Colvin. It’s urgent and intense filmmaking — and you’ll leave the movie shell-shocked, a feeling you won’t be able to shake for days. Heineman (“Cartel Land,” “City of Ghosts”) shoots the movie in documentary style, bringing viewers smack into the war-torn areas she so meticulously brought home to readers. Serving as our guide is Rosamund Pike (“Gone Girl”), delivering the performance of her career as Colvin, a journalist dedicated to speaking truth to power and to chronicling the all-too-high human cost of war. She was a warrior who saw more frontline action than most soldiers in her years reporting for the Sunday Times of London. She was also deeply affected by all those bombs and bodies, so much so that post-traumatic stress sends her to rehab. Yet, despite observing all those sick, starving people — even losing an eye in Sri Lanka — nothing could deter her. She felt it her duty to tell those peoples’ stories, most of them about women and children who couldn’t speak for themselves. “People are dying and no one knows it is happening,” she says in refusing to “hang up her flak jacket.” Colvin would return, time and again, to the hot spots of Iraq, Libya, Egypt, Tunisia and Syria where she was killed Feb. 22, 2012, by a Syrian army mortar in Homs. She was just 56.

The movie gets rolling shortly after 9/11 and the U.S. invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, taking us through the final 10 years of her life. In addition to her war reporting, Heineman explores Colvin’s personal life, particularly her penchant for parties, lovers (Stanley Tucci, Greg Wise), vodka martinis and cigarettes. Colvin works hard and plays hard. Pike’s gripping, vanity-free performance probably would have made Colvin proud. The actress seamlessly oscillates between the two sides of Colvin — the tough reporter and the vulnerable woman who weeps when she looks in the mirror, unable to reconcile all her demons. Not many could. Heineman also smartly sprinkles Colvin’s own voice from a past interview throughout the movie. In voiceover, the real Colvin recounts her legendary career to “make their suffering part of the record.” Her most haunting revelation is about fear, which she faces down because she “cares enough to go to war.”

The film also benefits from a solid supporting cast. Jamie Dornan plays freelance photographer, Paul Conroy, who was injured in the Homs bombing. Tom Hollander is Colvin’s well-intentioned editor, Sean Ryan. Faye Marsay is Kate Richardson, a cub reporter on the foreign desk who Colvin mentors. Nikki Amuka-Bird is Colvin’s best friend, suggesting she seek treatment for her PTSD. If there is a quibble with the film, it’s that none of these characters are on screen long enough to fully register, except Dornan who, free of the restraints of playing Christian Grey in “Fifty Shades of Grey,” turns in solid work as Colvin’s confidante. It speaks to their unforced chemistry and acting chops that the two most riveting scenes in “A Private War” don’t take place on the battlefield. These quieter moments exposing her vulnerability — and his admiration - happen in rehab and a hotel bathroom.

Heineman, working from a script by Arash Amel, adapting Marie Brenner’s Vanity Fair article, consistently keeps you on edge. Whether his camera is following Colvin and Conroy, as they find a mass grave of hundreds of Saddam Hussein’s victims, or talking their way through a military checkpoint, or Colvin’s attempts to dictate a story from a hospital bed, the mood is frenzied and harrowing. This isn’t one of those “if it bleeds, it leads” journalism movies.

Even though we know how Colvin’s story ends, you still can’t help but scream inside your head: “No, don’t go!” That’s how absorbing “A Private War” becomes. That’s a credit to Heineman and Pike, who’s never been more tenacious, showing that journalists are certainly not the enemy of the people.— Dana Barbuto may be reached at dbarbuto@patriotledger.com or follow her on Twitter @dbarbuto_Ledger.

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